Durham University

Jonny · 11 Feb 2010 at 07:31

I am seriously considering returning to full time education as a mature student this year and I have been lucky enough to get offered a place to study Computer Science with a foundation year at Durham University and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions as to which college to choose?

By the time term-time rolls around I will be 26 so I was wondering if there was any suggestions for the slightly mature student?

From what I can understand, Durham is a highly regarded uni and is 13th for Comp Sci according to The Times and 31 by The Guardian. I am hoping I will be able to handle the course as although I like to consider myself relatively confident on computers this will be my first experience of computer science and my only IT qualification so far is a level one OU computing course.

Many thanks,

Jonny

MONOLITH · 11 Feb 2010 at 08:16

Computer science is fairly straight forward. As long as you can think logically there shouldn't be much trouble. Being fairly able at maths would be a bonus but is nowhere near essential (well for mainstream programming it isn't). It's a good thing that you are doing a foundation course as well as you will probably need it, just so you can get a good base of knowledge to build upon.

If it was like my degree you should be able to tailor modules to some extent so you can focus on a particular area. I.e. web code, software programming, graphics programming etc. I would advise that you have a think about what job you want to aim for and make sure you do the relevant modules in your degree. So if you want to be a web developer then make sure you do all the relevant modules for that. If you want to write graphics shaders then obviously do C++ and graphics units and so forth.

Just to reiterate, as long as you can think logically then you should not have a problem. You could always start looking at some basic Javascript tutorials so you can get a grasp of what it is all about.

Jonny · 11 Feb 2010 at 08:27

Thanks for your reply, thinking logically is one of the reasons I have chosen the course - I touched on Javascript on my OU course which you can seehere if you are partiularly bored!

I found the course fairly straight forward with a decent mixture of theory and programmin basic scripts - I specifically applied for foundation courses as I want to bring myself up to scratch as it were.

My biggest worry is going and struggling to get to grips with the course - but then I guess that is what the foundation year is for

J.B · 11 Feb 2010 at 08:35

If you have (even a basic) grasp of Java then you will be one up on most undergrad CS students! If you are dedicated there's no reason you can't come out witha good degree

Will you be living in halls or commuting in? When I started uni 2 good friends I met there were 25 and 26, doing IT based courses. The guy who was 25 loved halls, he still talks about them now, got a first in the end. Y+The guy who was 26 went around it the wrong way a bit. He acted like he was better than people just because he was a few years older, but he also worked hard and got a 2:1.

My experiance of mature students is they tend to be more motivated and dedicated.

MONOLITH · 11 Feb 2010 at 08:37

I would have thought you should be fine. I don't have time to look at that script, but as long as you have played around with variables/arrays you should be ok. I would have thought the majority of students on the course would be coming from an A-Level in computing which, when I did it at least, involved using visual basic which was a complete waste of time. So if you have Javascript experience which is a lot more useful than VB you should not have any problems.

californiadream · 11 Feb 2010 at 09:28

Congrats on getting an offer! In terms of colleges I think that most have a mature student population of some sort so your best bet would be to check out this: http://www.dur.ac.uk/colleges/ to see which colleges have the facilities you want and to get a run down on which have the most mature students. Obviously each has their own preference but I'm going to stick my neck out and suggest that you might not like Hatfield or University colleges as whilst they look pretty they have a pretty large rah population.

Gaverick · 11 Feb 2010 at 11:39

Mary's, Grey's or Collingwood are all 5 minutes walk to the science site which is where you will be spending around 25 hours of your week in lectures and practicals. Ustinov is the designated postgrad college so there are more mature students there, it's a 20 minute uphill walk to there so no rolling out of bed and into lectures.

I lived in Mary's first year, great for getting to and from the science site, there are also more older students relative to Collingwood which is a very large college with a lot of younger students. The food isn't bad in Mary's either.

For Computer Science though I would definitely recommend one of the hill colleges over the bailey colleges due to their proximity to the science site. Bailey colleges are closer to town centre so good for nights out if your in to that.

PS Don't worry about not knowing Java, they really do start from the ground up, I know people who joined with me knowing nothing about programming and now they are whizz kids in Java, it's all about the logical thinking.

Jonny · 11 Feb 2010 at 12:19

Thanks again, Gav do you have any experience of the Josephine butler college? Im leaning towards self catering and it looks quite new but I'm not sure of it's proximity etc?

Gaverick · 11 Feb 2010 at 12:33

Butler is a new college built on top of the hill. It is very nice inside, very modern and well equipped. It is between Collingwood and Ustinov, so a 15 minute downhill walk to the science site. The walk back up is quite steep but nothing too bad as long as you don't mind walking. Walking time in to the town for shopping, since you are self catered, would be somewhere around 25 - 30 minutes, although I think there is a free bus service which should make life easier.

Butler is a 5 minute walk from Ustinov which has a large population of postgrad students which would be good for you, and the Ustinov bar is great so a good place to meet new friends. To be honest they are all great colleges and you will grow to love which ever one you end up in as there is a big sense of community within each college.